Being Good Stewards
Montanya Distillers is proud to be certified as a “Best for Colorado” company and to be newly nominated as a “Best for The World” designation in 2019!
At Montanya Distillers, we recently had the pleasure of meeting with a student from nearby Western Colorado University. She and her classmates were conducting interviews with local businesses for a “Business and the Environment” class.
As we were chatting, the risk of greenwashing came up—the practice of touting a company’s commitment to sustainability while they aren’t doing a whole lot to back it up with daily actions.
We’re lucky to live in a small community like Crested Butte where it is hard to pretend and hide what is really going on, but nevertheless, this student was impressed to see how many things Montanya does to be sustainable. (Or as we like to think of it, being a good steward of the planet, the community and our people.)
That’s one reason we take the time to document our stewardship and sustainability practices, and to partner with independent organizations who can attest to and certify our commitment. We feel it’s important to be transparent about what we do, and back up our words with action.
Along those lines, we’re thrilled to announce our most recent certification by and affiliation with Best for Colorado. Part of The Alliance Center, Best for Colorado provides an assessment tool for companies to measure their social responsibility practices, as well as tools and programming to make improvements.
We also recently launched a new section of our website dedicated to our stewardship and sustainability practices. There, you’ll find our certifications, our sustainability practices and even our efforts to go zero-waste (we’re planning to achieve 100% zero waste in all aspects of our business by 2020).
The tasting room, distillery, and barrel room are 100% wind powered.
Recycled heat from the stills keeps the distillery and tasting room warm.
Montanya’s bottle supplier is certified cradle to cradle, and we print on FSC certified paper.
Of course, we’re the first to admit that we’re not perfect. We know there’s always more we can do, and we’re working on it every day. But it sure felt good to know that, when asked good questions, we had answers! It is much easier to sail through a certification process when the company’s core values are deeply imbedded in sustainable daily actions.